Show us your home grown grub

[Fintray]

That's a fair crop you got there Joe!

Was up in Huntly this past week and the amount of gardens (and open council ground) that have fruit trees that are absolutely laden with fruit was a surprise. They have a scheme where if you have excess apples these can be donated and they are made into apple juice and sold with the proceeds going back into the community.

[Joeboy]

That's a fair crop you got there Joe!

Was up in Huntly this past week and the amount of gardens (and open council ground) that have fruit trees that are absolutely laden with fruit was a surprise. They have a scheme where if you have excess apples these can be donated and they are made into apple juice and sold with the proceeds going back into the community.

That is a great idea. First batch ready to be destoned (ouch).
Kitchen has a Christmas smell.

[Joeboy]

In the end we harvested 26kgs of Victoria plums into bread bags in 1kg batches.. Each tray holds bang on 2kgs of plums post stoning. 2kgs to SWMBO sister and the rest should give us a once a week plum crumble through Winter.
Incredibly satisfying to be doing for ourselves. Also pulled a couple of stone of tatties out while passing.

[Joeboy]

Cropping off the 3rd apple tree.

[Joeboy]

Cropping off the 3rd apple tree.

From that small muckabucket we have 5kg cored and frozen for Winter, a apple Charlotte ready for the oven as is the homemade apple, onion, sausage and black pudding sausage rolls.
Should be at least another 10kgs off the tree. Worth every Winter trip to the fruit trees to religiously.place the WBS Ash.

[ecogeorge]

Third batch of runnerbean chutney (never had so many runner beans) . Cooked on the woodburner -only on the cooker for bottling ..
George

[Joeboy]

Third batch of runnerbean chutney (never had so many runner beans) . Cooked on the woodburner -only on the cooker for bottling ..
George

Nice!

[Moxi]

Its been a very very good year for runner beans, the FiL has been picking daily, blanching and freezing some for us and then walking a few miles around the mountain side to drop runner beans off with distant neighbours. Still collecting potato's and there's just one courgette ready to pick and a few flowers left on but they look like male flowers from a distance so that maybe the last of the courgettes.

Shallots are all in their pickle jars now, peas are on their last crop but have been almost as profuse as the runner beans.

No cabbage this year as we grew so much last year that we were fed up of it!

My rhubard never amounted to anything this year, it threw some very small (4") stems and leaves early on then didn't do anything more, the crowns are present and don't seem rotten, but the plant refused to grow. 2ft away in the same bed the FiL's rhubarb produced plenty of stems and is still in growth - never come across this before. Might be a new plant next year ??

Our one apple tree gave us a nice flush of eating apples- some of which were cut and cooked down and frozen while the rest went to small hands to eat . I'm mindful to plant another apple tree early next year to increase the apple harvest in future years as the kids seem to really enjoy them. I might try a plum as well although we are on a very windy and exposed hill side so a plum may give too much canopy and be too easily damaged - anyone got a view on this as I haven't grown plum trees before.

Sadly the raspberries got eaten by a ewe and her lamb who made it into the garden earlier in the year, the plants have recovered a little and should survive to next year fingers crossed.

The chickens have started to consume more feed as the air temperature drops and their scraggy summer shedding has stopped and they are growing their winter feathers and starting to look plump and conditioned again. Egg production is typically 3 to 4 per day still from 5 hens,

Moxi

[Joeboy]

Its been a very very good year for runner beans, the FiL has been picking daily, blanching and freezing some for us and then walking a few miles around the mountain side to drop runner beans off with distant neighbours. Still collecting potato's and there's just one courgette ready to pick and a few flowers left on but they look like male flowers from a distance so that maybe the last of the courgettes.

Shallots are all in their pickle jars now, peas are on their last crop but have been almost as profuse as the runner beans.

No cabbage this year as we grew so much last year that we were fed up of it!

My rhubard never amounted to anything this year, it threw some very small (4") stems and leaves early on then didn't do anything more, the crowns are present and don't seem rotten, but the plant refused to grow. 2ft away in the same bed the FiL's rhubarb produced plenty of stems and is still in growth - never come across this before. Might be a new plant next year ??

Our one apple tree gave us a nice flush of eating apples- some of which were cut and cooked down and frozen while the rest went to small hands to eat . I'm mindful to plant another apple tree early next year to increase the apple harvest in future years as the kids seem to really enjoy them. I might try a plum as well although we are on a very windy and exposed hill side so a plum may give too much canopy and be too easily damaged - anyone got a view on this as I haven't grown plum trees before.

Sadly the raspberries got eaten by a ewe and her lamb who made it into the garden earlier in the year, the plants have recovered a little and should survive to next year fingers crossed.

The chickens have started to consume more feed as the air temperature drops and their scraggy summer shedding has stopped and they are growing their winter feathers and starting to look plump and conditioned again. Egg production is typically 3 to 4 per day still from 5 hens,

Moxi

Reads as you are doing well Moxi, especially liking the thought of the chickens, wonderful animals . Plum trees will grow literally anywhere but they are not the fastest. I'd pay a premium to get one at a few years old. Late frost will kill the flowers, you won't get flowers on the years growth, be careful how much you prune in this case. Don't put it too high so it can be pollinated. Dig a large hole and prime with a 50/50] mix of manure/compost. Water well for first couple of months to give it a running start.

I like Victoria plums so that's the tree we chose. Anout 15 years old now and produced 26kgs of accessible fruit.

For apple trees try and pick a variety that produces good sized apples. The smaller are very time consuming for not much volume.

[Moxi]

Thanks JB,

Both trees would need to be reasonably compact in habit or extremely flexible, if you recall the tree that was photographed at kirkhill (on the slant and decidedly wind swept) well that's how it is around us .

I will keep my eyes open come springtime to see what's available.

I will try and put some photos up at some point of the gardens and of course the chickens.

Moxi